


Chill Out

by iwasanartist



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Teammate in Peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:47:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22262836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/pseuds/iwasanartist
Summary: After a bad mission, The Avengers try to locate Steve before it's too late.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Kudos: 12





	Chill Out

**Author's Note:**

> Found this ficlet while doing some hard drive housecleaning. The mission may not matter, but the friendships sure do.

“FALL BACK! FALL BACK! NOW, NOW, NOW!”

It wasn’t the sort of warning they needed to hear twice. They took the nearest exit, and if there wasn’t an exit, they made one and ran.

The explosion was deafening. The ground shook. They could feel the heat of it, and smell the smoke and the char as it intermingled with the crisp scent of snow and ice and water. It wasn’t until they got back to the jet that they realized one was missing.

“Where’s Cap?” Bruce asked.

“What do you mean? He gave the order to-” Nat’s voice cut off like a rock had lodged itself suddenly in her throat. “God,” she said as she moved to the cockpit window. The entire quadrant of the building he’d been searching was flaming rubble. Tony was by her side in an instant, scrambling for a microphone.

“Cap, respond. Steve, can you hear me?” He lowered the microphone. “Jarvis, do you have him?”

“I’m afraid the blast is interfering with the homing device, sir,” Jarvis said. 

“Can you access his comms? Are they working?”

“They’re on speaker, sir. I’m trying to reboot the rest of his trackers.”

They all crowded around the tiny speaker. An odd static filled the cockpit. No. Not static. Not the sound of burning wood. It was almost like a recording slowed to a third the speed and muffled in thick blankets.

Clint cocked his head at the sound.

“Is that…”

“Sir, I’ve accessed Captain Rogers’ life monitors. His body temperature is dropping rapidly.”

“He’s in the water,” Clint said. “Jesus.” A loud rapid beeping squealed in their ears. “What the fuck is that?”

“His heart,” Bruce said weakly. “He’s scared.”

“Dr. Banner is correct," Jarvis said. “At this rate, he will deplete his oxygen stores rather quickly.”

“Okay,” Tony said. “Okay, Steve? Can you hear me buddy? Tap your comms if you can hear me.”

Frantic breaks interrupted what now sounded exactly like rushing water as his heart beat continued to accelerate.

“Okay, okay, we’ve got you. Listen to me. I need you calm down. Can you just chill out for a minute?” The tapping stopped. The beeping slowed. “That’s good. Great. Just hang in there. We’re coming for you. You hear me? We’re coming for you.”

* * *

Fucking cold is what it was. Windy as shit, too. Clint fought to keep his teeth from chattering from his perch on the nose of the jet. Stark was flying around in his suit. He may have had all the speed and maneuverability, but he didn’t have Clint’s eyes. They’d started at the blast site. It made sense for Cap to exit via window directly into the ice cold river, but there was no sign of him. They followed the winds and bends while Jarvis tried again to connect the GPS. Then he saw it. One shining glint of red poking up from a frozen over section. Like it had been hurled from beneath the surface only to get lodged in the ice.

“I got something,” he said as he nocked an arrow and let it fly, trailing green smoke behind it and sparking as it bulls-eyed next to the bit of metal.”

“On it,” Stark said as he tore after the arrow.

* * *

Tony’s first instinct was to punch his way through the ice.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, sir,” Jarvis said. Right, right. He had lasers for that sort of thing. A few bursts cleared a section big enough to fly through. Even in the suit, he could feel the cold as it stole warmth from the metal.

And then he saw Steve trapped under what looked like half a concrete wall that dragged him this far down the river before settling at the bottom. His eyes were squeezed shut. His face, pained, as one air bubble escaped a nostril. Tony propelled himself forward. There wasn’t much time. He tried to move the wall, only to realize that if Steve couldn’t lift it off himself, Tony didn’t have much hope of doing it either. So he did the next best thing, swimming above it and directing beams at the concrete, shaving off enormous chunks at the edges.

But it was still so heavy. He patted Steve on the arm until his eyes peeked open and motioned at the wall. Steve nodded and positioned himself to push as Tony pulled. He held up a fist. Then one finger. Two. Three. 

They put all their strength into it. Air bubbles flew from Steve’s mouth and nose as he used the last of his breath to get free. Once he was out, he gave a few kicks, a few strokes, but it wasn’t enough to break the surface, and he was sinking again when Tony grabbed him under the arms and blasted out, dropping him with a gasping thump into the snow. Without Steve’s weight, the suit powered forward, sending him end over end until he could right himself and look back. 

Steve was doubled over, pawing at his soaked uniform trying to get it off with fingers that refused to work right. Tony paled at the sight. The parts of Steve that weren’t blue were white as the snow itself. He could hear the jet, no doubt still trying to get to a clear landing site. Jarvis’s voice crackled in his ear. The suit had taken more damage. It couldn’t carry Steve up to meet them. 

Tony stuck his arms out and initiated the flight stabilizers, sending himself hurtling back toward the water’s edge. He popped the canopy as soon as he was close enough — fuck, he was dry as a bone and freezing already — and went to Steve. Pulling at the clasps of the bulky jacket until it finally freed, leaving him in a T-shirt.

“All right. All right, I gotcha,” Tony said as he wrapped his arms around Steve and spun. Steve’s back hit the suit and Tony stepped as close as he could. “Expand and close,” he said. The suit whirred as its plates moved, effectively doubling its size, and wrapped around them like a cocoon, blasting warm air at them.

Steve was shaking, body and breath, against him and Tony rubbed his arms up and down Steve’s torso trying to create more warmth in the confined space. Steve swallowed once and lowered his head onto Tony’s shoulder.

“That’s not…” the words were stolen by clattering teeth. “That wasn’t funny,” he said. His breath at least was warm against Tony’s neck.

“What wasn’t?”

“Ch…ch…chill out…”

Tony squinted in the darkness and replayed their last exchange in his mind.

_I need you calm down. Can you just chill out for a minute?_

“Well,” he said, “it was a little funny.”

They were both still laughing when Bruce and Barton clanged on the suit until they spilled out into a heap of coats and blankets and friends.


End file.
